Photo Album

2006 Winter Vacation

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Viva Las Vegas ... again!
	Yes, we went back to Las Vegas for our latest vacation. As unimaginative as it may seem to return to the site of our last vacation, it was cold here in Toronto, and warm there, and Rebecca is still getting over the effects of CFS so we didn't want to go someplace new where she'd feel obligated to run all over town and wear herself out. This is the kitchen in our suite at the Marriott.
	This is the boys' bedroom. The nice thing about two-bedroom suites is that the boys can sleep in their own totally separate bedroom. The bedroom also had a pull-out couch for a second bed, so the boys wouldn't have to share the single king-size bed.
	Here's the boys' bathroom.
	And here's the living room, complete with plasma-screen TV and DVD player! Very handy. That's "Godzilla: Final Wars" playing on the TV.
	This is our bedroom. There's a huge bathtub in the background behind the bed, although you can't see it very well in this shot.
	And this is the wash/vanity area of our bedroom.
	The shower in our bathroom had the coolest feature: two shower heads, one at each end of the oversized shower stall (you can only see one of the shower heads in this picture, but there's one on the far wall too). The shower was actually designed to allow two people to shower comfortably at the same time! Cool, eh?
	And this is the view looking out the window from our bedroom during the day. Of course, as with most cityscapes, the city looks better at night.
	This is Rebecca at the Oyster's Bay restaurant in the Aladdin. I'm using the "screen" layer method of creating that dreamy "glamour"-style photography, where you duplicate the main layer, use a Gaussian blur on it, set it to "screen" mode, and then adjust the layer opacity to get the results you want.
	This is the giant lion statue at the front of the MGM Grand hotel.
	Matthew listening to the self-guided audio tour in the Shark Reef attraction at the Mandalay Bay hotel. It's always tricky to get a decent picture of this kind of attraction, since the lighting is dark and the contents of the aquarium go all dark if I use the flash (just in case you're wondering about the blurry focus; I ended up leaving the shutter open for a long time and I couldn't hold the camera still enough without a tripod).
	And finally, a picture with me in it! That's the problem with being the photographer on a family trip: you never appear in any of the pictures.
	David looking at the touch pool in the Shark Reef attraction. You can't tell from this picture how very dark it is in there; the Shark Reef is an extremely poor lighting environment for photography, so every picture I took down there involved some sort of compromise between visibility, clarity, and the use of the flash.
	The boys in front of the jellyfish display.
	David in front of the lionfish display.
	David returning to the touch pool to lay hands on the residents.
	Everyone wants to touch the big fish.
	Seeing these sharks up close was pretty neat.
	As you can see, David got a kick out of it too.
	And this is the boys outdoors on the way back! We wanted to check out the Monorail on our way back from Mandalay Bay, but I'm sorry to say that it kind of sucks. A single ticket was $5.00 per person, one way. But worse yet, it only stops at every second or third hotel, so if you want to go from Mandalay Bay to the Aladdin, you can't. You have to go to the Paris hotel, and then walk all the way back to get to the Aladdin. If there's one beef I have with Las Vegas it's with the driving and parking situation, and I think they squandered a golden opportunity by building an expensive monorail with so few stops on it.
	This is the view from our suite window at night. Not bad, eh?
	This is the boys just hanging out in our living room, watching the tube.
	This is David at M&M World, just before the entrance to the M&M movie. He just can't resist hamming it up for the camera. "Subdued" is not a word that leaps to mind when his name comes up.
	This is Rebecca and the boys at the Coke Museum again, in a very similar picture to the last time. The boys look so much bigger and more mature this time around.
	Rebecca and the boys in front of the Gorn and the Salt Monster at the Star Trek Experience attraction in the Hilton.
	All of us; some passserby offered to take our picture for us.
	Rebecca with the Salt Monster. She is particularly fond of that episode.
	The night-time view from the rooftop pool area at the Marriott.
	Another angle.
	Another angle.
	The boys swimming in the rooftop pool at night. Night-time swimming is very cool; everyone should try it.
	Rebecca and the boys inside the Venetian Grand Canal shopping area. I tried taking a picture almost identical to this one last time we were there, but I was using one of those shitty disposable one-time cameras and you couldn't see the backdrop or the ceiling at all. This time I came equipped with a real camera.
	And here's the incredibly ornate ceiling just inside the main entrance.
	The outside of the Venetian, viewed from the gondola ride that we took together.
	Another picture taken during the gondola ride.
	Rebecca and the boys posing inside the Grand Canal area with one of the performers.
	One of the "living statue" performers. They're all dressed up in white-face makeup and stand almost perfectly still, so that you might not realize they're alive until you take a closer look.
	The mini-opera singers performing. Las Vegas is full of these kinds of little free shows that take place inside the various hotels.
	Remember the performer who was photographed with Rebecca and the boys? There she is, during the same mini-opera performance, singing from a balcony.
	Rebecca and the boys standing on one of the bridges across the Canal. The lighting was atrocious in this scene.
	The "Forum Shops" mall attached to Caesar's Palace.
	Caesar's Palace isn't quite as ornate on the inside as the Venetian, but it comes close.
	The boys in front of a statue of a Greek warrior.
	The Forum Shops mall is filled with statues of various kinds, usually based on a Greco-Roman theme as one might expect.
	Yes, it's a Trojan Horse!
	Rebecca and the boys sitting at the fish tank near the largest of several "moving statue" displays.
	As above.
	The "moving statues" display comes to life, complete with fire and lasers and sound effects. It's a neat little show based on a "Fall of Atlantis" theme.
	And here's the King of Atlantis being consumed by fire in the great calamity.
	On the way out of Caesar's Palace, we ran into a Star Wars event! This was totally unexpected; apparently Kenny Baker (the actor inside R2D2) was on hand to sign autographs. We got his autograph and a few pictures to boot. Here's the boys with a stormtrooper.
	And here's Kenny himself.
	And here's the family with some other in-costume performers.
	And of course, Boba Fett.
	And this takes us to the Mirage, where we tried to visit the Secret Garden but ran out of time because of failing light.
	As you can see, it's getting darker fast.
	And now night-time has fallen, so the Mirage volcano can start up!
	They really pull out all the stops for the Mirage volcano, so you get fire and everything.
	More fire.
	Hey, how did we end up out here in the desert?
	Rebecca doesn't seem to mind the heat; she's still wearing her coat!
	OK,the boys have had enough of the hot desert Sun.
	And on to Hoover Dam! It's hard to imagine a time when America prided itself on such great public-works and engineering projects. Nowadays you hear about how Hollywood and multi-national corporations like McDonald's are infiltrating the world, but that's somehow less impressive than those great engineering projects of old.
	Here's another view facing the opposite way, so you can see the river flowing downstream past the dam.
	And here are the boys inspecting the diagram of how Hoover Dam's electricity generating plant works. Clearly, the Department of Homeland Security will now put my boys on the Watch List.
	Some performers at Circus Circus, around the north end of the Strip. Circus Circus is not really a big deal because its attractions are the kind of thing you'd find at any midway or amusement park, but the boys really enjoy it, and they do offer free shows every hour or half hour. Some of them are quite good, albeit not exactly Cirque Du Soleil level.

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Michael and Rebecca Wong

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2006 Winter Vacation